Transportation services (e.g., ride share services, taxi services, etc.) provide a way for requesters to travel from one place to another with relative ease. For example, ride share transportation services enable requesters to request transportation from nearly any location and at almost any time. By assigning a nearby provider to pick up a requesting passenger (i.e., requester), transportation services generally provide an added level of convenience to the requester, without the requester relying on a bus schedule, navigating to a subway station, or even owning a vehicle. To illustrate, a ride share transportation service may enable a requester to request a provider for roadside pickup and to deliver the requester to a desired destination (e.g., as the requester designates by way of a mobile device). The ride share system then matches and assigns a provider for the requester based on location and other factors to quickly and efficiently transport the requester. With the advancement of smartphones, requesting a provider is even simpler than before. For instance, a requester can utilize a mobile application to request a provider, and, via the location information associated with the smartphone, the ride share system can match a nearby provider to the request to pick up the requester and deliver the requester to a desired destination, all more efficiently than in times past. However, while conventional transportation systems do provide some benefits, conventional transportation systems nonetheless have several disadvantages.
For example, conventional transportation systems provide information at a level of detail that inhibits requesters and/or providers from effectively locating one another for pickup. To illustrate, in cases where a requester is searching for a transportation vehicle that has arrived for pickup in a crowded, unfamiliar, and/or complicated area, conventional systems may provide a map and/or identification information associated with the transportation vehicle (such as make, model, license plate number, etc.); however, given the lack of familiarity or the complicated nature of the area, requesters often have difficulty locating the transportation vehicle. Similarly, as requesters wander through crowded, unfamiliar, and/or complex locations, providers often have difficulty locating a particular requester to initiate a ride. As a result, requesters often experience frustration and confusion in locating transportation vehicles arriving for pickup when utilizing conventional transportation systems. Similarly, providers often express frustration and confusion in locating requesters waiting for pickup when utilizing conventional transportation systems.
In addition to causing frustration and confusion, conventional transportation systems also lead to inefficiencies and missed ride opportunities. For example, when a provider of a transportation vehicle that is assigned to pick up a requester waits too long (or cannot locate the requester) or when a requester cannot locate the transportation vehicle, the requester and/or provider may cancel the pickup request. Accordingly, requesters often initiate duplicate pickup requests from the same location. Conversely, utilizing conventional transportation systems, providers often waste valuable time searching for requesters in which they could have earned a fare from another requester.
Because conventional transportation systems result in missed pickups and duplicative pickup requests, these systems also suffer from heavier digital communications traffic. As a result, these conventional transportation systems also require more processing time and processing power in assigning multiple transportation vehicles to pick up a single requester. Thus, conventional systems sometimes require more computing resources than necessary for matching a requester to a transportation vehicle for pickup.
Thus, there are several disadvantages with regard to conventional transportation systems.